Volume 143, Issue #5
PHOTOGRAPHER FOCUSES ON EATING DISORDERS
The word “Fat” would run through the mind of Jessie Stern, fine art photographer. It inspired this body of work, which reflects her experience with the eating disorder, anorexia. Stern’s photos, displayed in the City College’s Gallery Obscura, pulls the viewer in with this strong graphic series of emaciated stark white bodies. “I don’t think I can say enough about this subject,” Stern said. “Everyone has something to say, but they all say the same thing, like ‘I don’t like my body.‘“ Stern, 20, has lived with this disease since her per-teens and did not become aware of the problem until two and half years ago. She received help when her physician voiced his concern about her dramatic weight loss.
Stern said she came to a point where she had all of her emotions bubbling over and didn’t know where to put them. She decided to show those painful emotions through her photography. The piece that really begs for attention was “In The Thick Of It,” a self-portrait collage of emulsion transfers of her look at herself in the mirror with her mouth open and appears to be screaming in her room. The piece is mounted on glass surrounded by a wooden frame with chipped white paint. Stern said she felt very strong about this piece. It was the only photograph she took before she got help. The photograph “Fat” of a woman lying down on her back nude with the word fat written in all caps down her lower abdomen to her upper thigh was another impressive piece of work.
Some people feel like they can’t relate to this subject, so they are left in shock viewing these photographs.Their realism is impeccable. “Very intense, beautiful work but hard to take in and hard to understand,” Morgan Womble-Dahl said. “Really weird thing for me. I have always had the opposite view, wanting to gain weight,” Chris Gee said. Jessie felt she needed to express the repetitive nature of the word “fat” in her photograph. The angle in which it was shot represents the way people look down on themselves Over a dozen of Stern’s pictures mounted on the wall of the City College Gallery Obscura. Which is located in the Visual Arts room V69 on the Ocean campus. The show will be up until April 14th Mon.- Thurs. 9 a.m. – 9 p.m.e-mail:asstphotoeditor@theguardsman.com
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